Russia and Adoptions to Ireland
“The Russian government has warned in a letter to Ireland’s Parliament that it may halt negotiations on an agreement for cross-border adoptions if an Irish parliamentary committee approves a resolution critical of rights abuses in Russia.
The letter signals Russia is ready to wield adoption policies as leverage to discourage Western criticism of human rights abuses in Russia with countries other than the United States, where an adoption ban took effect late last year.
The United States Congress passed the Magnitsky Law that banned travel to the United States and ordered the seizure of assets of Russian officials suspected of ties to the death in prison of the lawyer Sergei L. Magnitsky, and other officials suspected of corruption and rights abuses.
In response, Russia’s Parliament passed the Dima Yakovlev Law that bans American couples from adoption of Russian orphans. It is named for a Russian toddler who died after he had been left in a hot car by his adoptive American father.
The letter to Ireland’s lawmakers suggested Russia would proceed with this tactic despite criticism that it harms the interests of the country’s orphans, while also dashing the hopes of prospective adoptive parents abroad, who form an emotional and motivated constituency to influence elected officials. But the Kremlin, much diminished in its foreign policy reach since the end of the cold war, has few other levers of influence left.
In the letter, sent last month, the ambassador to Ireland, Maksim Peshkov, said the ban on adoptions by American couples was justified by abusive treatment of Russian adoptees.
“Russia has enough arguments and they are repeatedly and publicly stated,” he wrote.
The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Irish Parliament has been considering a resolution about Mr. Magnitsky’s case, similar to those passed by other European parliaments.
The Russian ambassador’s letter to the committee said such a resolution “can have negative influence on the negotiations on the Adoption Agreement between Russia and Ireland.”
The warning appeared to have proved effective in at least giving lawmakers pause. The chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Pat Breen, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that he had received worried letters from a group representing constituents who have been hoping to adopt orphans from Russia.
While Mr. Breen said he would not be swayed on a human rights issue, a deputy chairman of the committee, Bernard Durkan, proposed an alternative resolution voicing concern about Mr. Magnitsky’s case but not recommending a visa ban or the seizure of assets.
Mr. Breen said the committee would consider compromise language for its resolution at a hearing next Wednesday.”
Russia Using Adoption Leverage in Ireland
[New York Times 4/26/13 by Andrew E. Cramer]
Russia Denies the Threat
“Russia has no plans to ban Irish citizens from adopting Russian children, despite Irish lawmakers lobbying for an EU-wide blacklist of Russian officials, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Dublin told RIA Novosti on Monday.
“The media has overplayed it, there are no plans for a tit-for-tat ban,” Nikolai Ivanov said by telephone.
In March, the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committee drafted a resolution calling on the EU to blacklist Russian officials implicated in the prison death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
Commenting on the case to the committee in a letter last month, Russian Ambassador to Ireland, Maxim Peshkov, said the blacklist could have “a negative influence” on the new Russian-Irish adoption agreement that is in the works.
Peshkov’s letter was leaked to the press last Friday, causing a stir. The head of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, denounced it as “blackmail.”
But adoption talks are still ongoing, Ivanov said. He confirmed the letter’s authenticity, but said it never made a direct link between the two issues.
The committee is set to discuss the resolution on Wednesday and hopes to negotiate a compromise by then, its head Pat Breen told RIA Novosti.
Ireland holds the EU presidency until the end of June.
About 1,500 Russian children have been adopted in Ireland since the Soviet Union’s collapse, according to the Russian Embassy in Dublin. None of them are reported to have sustained any abuse after moving to Ireland.”
“Russian officials are routinely accused of embezzling money to purchase assets, including real estate, in the EU and the United States, though such allegations rarely reach court.”
Russia Denies Threatening Ireland With Adoption Ban
[RIA Novosti 4/29/13]
Irish Hand-Wringing Opinion
Russia is not required to adopt out to Ireland or anywhere else for that matter. Why should they freely deal with countries that put sanctions on them?
Karen Coleman: We might be a small country, but we can’t allow Russia to bully us over adoptions [Irish Independent 5/1/13 by Karen Coleman] says “THE Government should strongly resist Russian threats to scupper an adoption agreement between Ireland and Russia if we support sanctions against Russian officials connected with the death of a Moscow-based lawyer. The same goes for Russian warnings that trade links between Ireland and this increasingly mafia state [I am sure insulting them will go a long way in coming to a civil agreement LOL] could also be jeopardised.
The Russian authorities are trying to stop Ireland from using its current presidency of the Council of the European Union to push for the implementation of EU-wide sanctions against Russian officials suspected of being involved in the death of the whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. The exploitation of orphaned Russian children as blackmailing bait shows how immoral the Putin regime is.
A capitulation to this kind of blackmail would amount to surrendering to a regime that pays little heed to democratic norms. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has receded into a Stalinist-like dictatorship where human rights, freedom of expression, media plurality and political diversity have been severely eroded.”
“The European Parliament passed a resolution last October calling for a similar Magnitsky Act to be introduced in all EU states. That’s where Ireland comes into the spotlight. Our current presidency of the EU Council gives us the power to put this on the agenda. But with only two months to go, we have little time left to exploit that opportunity.
The Russians are doing their best to intimidate us.
In March, the Russian Ambassador to Ireland, Maxim Peshkov wrote to Senator Pat Breen, the chairman of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee. The Committee had drawn up a draft motion calling on the Government to use its presidency “to impose EU-wide visa sanctions” against those allegedly involved in Mr Magnitsky’s death.
In Mr Peshkov’s letter, he warned the Committee against going ahead with the motion.
He sadi that it could have a “negative influence on the negotiations of the Adoption Agreement” between Russia and Ireland and that it would not “enrich bilateral Russian-Irish relations”.
Ireland should not cave into this kind of pressure, especially when it is sanctioned by a repressive regime.
We may be a small country struggling economically but that does not mean we should forfeit our beliefs in human rights to appease a deeply sinister regime.
By doing that we turn a blind eye to their treatment of people like Sergei Magnitsky, whose determination to expose corruption cost him his life.”
Guess they capitulated. Snort! 
“Ireland has dropped plans to impose U.S.-style Magnitsky sanctions on Russia after Moscow warned that it might respond by banning Irish parents from adopting Russian children.
The Russian opposition assailed Ireland for the reversal, saying it had not only bowed to Kremlin blackmail but had also shown a lack of leadership as the current president of the European Union.
Irish lawmakers had drafted legislation to blacklist Russian officials implicated of human rights violations in the Magnitsky case. But Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, Maxim Peshkov, wrote to the Irish parliament’s foreign affairs committee in March that any attempt to introduce a Magnitsky list might have a “negative influence” on an agreement on child adoptions between the two countries.
Several Irish parents subsequently contacted committee members after the letter was made public, expressing concern that pending adoptions for Russian children might be canceled.
Pat Breen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said Thursday that lawmakers had decided to scrap the Magnitsky list and instead pass a motion calling on the government to convey the committee’s concern over the death.
“We have reached a motion that fulfils our obligations on human rights,” he said, according to The Irish Times.
One senator, David Norris, told the committee that the Russian government should be “thoroughly ashamed” for “this use of children,” while Jim Walsh, the senator who proposed the blacklist, expressed disappointment that no sanctions would be enacted, the newspaper said. “But,” Walsh added, “politics is about achieving compromise.”
In Moscow, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a senior opposition member, minced no words in his criticism of Ireland and the Russian government.
“The effect is unambiguous: Ireland, the current president of the European Union, succumbed to the Kremlin’s blackmail and threats,” Kara-Murza said in an interview with the French radio station RFI. “It is with deep regret that it must be said that the blackmail of Putin’s regime has worked.”
But he saw a silver lining. “If there is anyone in the West, in the EU, who still had any illusions, the nature of Putin’s regime has now been revealed in all its glory,” he said.
The motion approved by the Irish parliamentary committee urges the Irish government to use its role as EU president to express concern over the death of Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009. The motion also mentions that the Kremlin’s human rights council concluded last summer that Magnitsky had “died as a result of beatings by prison guards” and that no one had been punished in connection with the death.
Magnitsky was arrested by Interior Ministry officials whom he had accused of defrauding the Russian government of millions of dollars. Those same officials later accused him of stealing the funds together with his employer, the London-based Hermitage Capital, once Russia’s largest foreign investment fund.
Russia banned U.S. parents from adopting Russian children immediately after the Magnitsky list was signed into law, although it has denied any link between the ban and the law.
“The official Kremlin line was that this was all just a coincidence, although everyone understood that it wasn’t but was ashamed to talk about it,” Kara-Murza said Thursday. “The letter that Russian Ambassador Peshkov sent to the Irish parliament … openly said that there is a direct link. The Kremlin is determined to use orphaned children as human shields to protect crooks and thieves.””
Under Child Adoption Threat, Ireland Scraps Magnitsky List
[The Moscow Times 5/3/13]
Wait. Are you sure this is correct? Russia would actually consider banning adoptions in Ireland even though they don’t do illegal photo listing and don’t kill their adopted children. According to Carlee the only reason Russia shut down Ameican adoptions was because of Reece’s Rainbow. Although I have read numerous Russian articles on the ban and not a single one of them mentions photo listing as a reason for the shut down. And I am curious as to why you don’t post the articls from the Russian citizens who want to know why their country is not more concerned about the 41 children who died in one orphanage in 10 years as they are in the 20 children who died in the US in 20.. Or the thousands of families who adopt from Russia who never turn in their post placement reports or all the children returned to the orphanages after their adoptions. But I am sure you guys are right on the money that the reason for the ban is because the Russain government truly cares about their orphans. I mean, you can tell how much they care about their special needs children by the condition of the orphanages. I am sure you have been there to see that you are so right to think they are all better off there than living with those horrible American families. I am just so glad there is a blog like this to set us all straight. I will sleep better tonight knowing the Russian government really does care about these children and they are being so well taken care off. Apparentaly all the Russian articles I have been reading are inaccurate and they should stop by here or ask Carlee for the most correct information. And maybe you should think about adding the sweet little girl who had a RR family coming for her before the ban but just died because she didn’t get the treatment for her heart that she needed to your tribute page. I mean, seeing how much your hearts ache for the abuse adopted children why not include her? Who knows, maybe if the ban was not in place she would have come home to thiose horrible Americans and died anyway because that is how all adoptions end according to this blog and the Russian government.
Um, take your meds. We have never said that Russia shut down due to photolistings, though the postings sure haven’t helped relations, but we have said that this was expected due to many signs from the ombudsman and Putin over the past several years. Putin started kicking out NGOs years ago as we said in our response to the ban. There are many factors including not prosecuting abusers in the US and lack of postplacement reports-both Ukraine and Russia have this issue. There are population issues that affect this decision as well as starting to improve their child welfare system as we shared examples from several regions that have foster care systems in place. We know of many children returned to orphanages after their adoption, but feel free to share articles about those-I am not familiar with media on that. We have traveled to orphanages. We know what they are and have adopted from them.
Medical care can be an emergency -we have stated this many many times, but adoption never is an emergency. Why didn’t RR arrange for a surgery for the child…oh that is right, they only care about adoption money. Sure give us her name, we will add to our end of year tribute.So glad you are omniscient and can guarantee that a particular child listed on an RR page would DEFINITELY live if adoption happened to a particular family. I mean, let’s face it RR and all the followers are essentially God and how dare we take their name in vain, right?
@ I Love Carlee — If RR PAPs don’t want their *public* blogs criticized or linked to, they should avail themselves of the PASSWORD PROTECT feature.
The Russian kids who died in Russian orphanages? I agree, the deaths are tragic, and an important *domestic* issue in Russia – but one that falls outside the scope of the law banning Americans from adopting.
I’m in agreement with Rally — RR isn’t the root of all evil, was not the main reason for Russia’s decision to ban Americans from adopting but sure isn’t helping with the photolistings. Or the “God’s Will, God’s Bill” approach to funding 100% of their adoption by begging for cash from strangers. Or asking folks to pray that the bioparents of the kid they want to adopt to stop visiting their beloved child so the RR family can have them. Or that RR’s very own Nicolai Emelyentsev is one of the 19-20 murdered Russian kids.
For those interested in paperwork gatherer for RR and Ukraine PAP Brigitte Van Nice, she pled guilty to aggravated forgery and was given a suspended sentence and had 2 other forgery charges deferred. See https://reformtalk.net/2012/10/24/reeces-rainbow-middle-contact-paperwork-gatherer-recent-two-at-once-bulgarian-pap-ukrainian-ap-and-fundraiser-arrested-for-forgery-and-perjury-in-iowa/
Quality people that RR attracts, eh?
ILC,
The fact that Vladimar Putin is a corrupt and repressive thug doesn’t mean that Russians who HAVE consciences aren’t legitimately upset that Russian children have been abused, disrupted, subjected to harsh pseudo-scientific “attachment therapy, and killed in America. They’re even more upset that this mistreatment occurred at the hands of American APs who were SUPPOSED to have been carefully vetted BEFORE they received approval to adopt Russian children.
They’re outraged that the United States justice system has either handed out light sentences or refused to prosecute these deaths. In the case of Max Shatto, the sheriff’s dept refused to even investigate the death. They just took the APs’ stories at face value, and declared in the autopsy report they weren’t sure exactly how Max received the abdominal blunt force trauma which caused his death, but they were sure Alan and Laura Shatto didn’t cause it.